By Rob Bricken in
Daily Lists, Toys
Thursday, May. 28 2009 @ 5:00AM
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In 1978, the Lego Group introduced cute, poseable minifigures (minifigs, as they're known) so kids had someone to populate the cities and drive the cars they made out of plastic bricks. Minifigs went on to become iconic, often the most-touted part of any Lego set. And for three decades, the excellent basic design of the minifig has stayed the same. To celebrate the anniversary of one of the most beloved toys of all time, Topless Robot brings you the 30 greatest Lego minifigs of the past 30 years.
30) Chef
No one went hungry in Lego land as long as this guy was around flipping pizzas. Gotta love the hat and mini-mustache.
29) Indian Chief
Lego's Western theme included sets that managed to capture the beauty of Native American dress and tradition. The chief here is rockin' the feathered headdress.
28) The "Ice Babe"
Lego's Space theme was the last holdout on introducing an obviously female minifig, and it was the female astronaut of Ice Planet 2002 who finally cut through that barrier, probably with her neon orange chainsaw.
27) Queen Leonora
Beautiful Leonora wears the ornate clothes of a medieval lady of status, and -- oh, dear, is that a chastity belt key on her waist?
26) Cavalry Soldier
While a grim reminder of the Civil War and Native American oppression, these minifigs were absolutely necessary if you were going to re-enact F-Troop in Lego.
25) Majisto
This good wizard was the first introduction of magic to the world of Lego Castle, and it was fun to finally have someone who could turn your evil knights into toads.
24) Lucius Malfoy
This Death Eater from the Harry Potter series is notable for being the most terrifying minifig Lego ever released. There's no cuteness here.
23) Vampire
Dracula looks stunning in Lego form, but doesn't he always? He was part of Lego's excellent Studios line of monster sets and came with his coffin.
22) Islander
Who ever expected Lego to make mini-figs out of Polynesian natives, and who ever thought they would turn out so great?
21) Two-Face
While the Batman villain is already a man of extremes, his duality is pronounced even
further in Lego as the adorable normal side is contrasted with the horrific scarred side.
20) Snowtrooper
Lego managed to take the already cool, blocky Snowtrooper armor from The Empire Strikes Back and condense it to bring out the awesomeness even more!
19) Sandy Cheeks
SpongeBob's squirrel scientist buddy comes dangerously close to being more Fabuland than standard minifig, but she's too nifty and cute to ignore.
18) Diver
Lego released a lot of divers, but this guy wins the prize for coolest wetsuit. He gets bonus points for his willingness to swim freely among schools of man-eating sharks.
17) Fantasy Era King
There have been many Lego kings, but they were all warming the throne for this guy. Fully bedecked in regal regalia and very Arthurian, this minifig don't put up with no crap from invading skeletons or trolls.
16) Achu
Lego went all out with the pomp on this Mayan (or perhaps Aztec) chief. Buy a bunch of him, and you could hold your very own Lego Mummers Parade!
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63 comments
Comments
Gareth said:
What else can be said? Lego is awesome. Thanks for the great list.
Anonymous replied to Gareth:
Where,s Boba Fett?
Glorious Cheese said:
Lego made a Sandy Cheeks minifig and I wasn't informed!? That's the greatest one ever ... unless they've made Patrick Star, too.
Archefox said:
Haha, I'm surprised that the slave bikini Leia isn't on the list somewhere.
Joey said:
Really glad to see Blacktron so high up here. Oh, the memories.
Anon said:
If you did a 'Greatest Lego Minifigs Never Made, this bunch would be top of the list;
Kris said:
I don't think the mermaid is the most naked figure ever. The Island Natives female is only wearing the grass skirt and a lei, as I recall.
monkey boy said:
SO HAPPY to see BLACKTRON on the list!
such a simple design, but man that black helmet/black visor combo really just kicked so much ass. whenever i built my own lego ships i always made sure the crew was nothing but blacktrons.
When Farts Have Lumps said:
Nice.
Kevin said:
Kris,
It depends on how you look at it. The mermaid's fish tail is naked, isn't it? So she only has her seashells. ;-)
But yeah, the Polynesian woman was very scantily clad, and almost made the list herself. I made sure to include the Islanders as a whole, though. Slave Leia was pretty naked, too.
cummins said:
Amazing list. I was hoping that the classic astronauts would take the top spot. I didn't even know some of these existed, well done indeed!
Also, I need a Lego skeleton in my life. Now.
Suleman said:
The medieval lady has the keys of the house on her belt, because she rules the day-to-day affairs of the house, especially when the lord is away killin' and huntin' and such. At least, that's how it was for viking women.
Dorkus Malorkus said:
I'd probably put Slave Leia as the most naked fig ever: http://tinyurl.com/5dbyla
Count Spatula said:
The best Lego figure I ever got was the Clone Chef. Due to a packing error, my Star Wars set came with the Chef torso. Hilarious, I still have him posed with a Lego rat in one and and a knife in the other.
Harlock Hero said:
"UFO was a controversial theme among Lego Space fans for a variety of reasons"
How, exactly? I'd like to hear those reasons, just out of curiosity. I remeber the UFO sets being some of my favourites as a kid.
Kevin said:
UFO gets dissed a lot by fans today because of its large, pre-molded and printed saucer pieces, mainly, which some people don't like because the pieces can't be used in much else. They never bothered me, though, as I think UFO was one of the best, most creative themes Lego ever made. I mean, there's actual flying saucers! That's great.
Harlock Hero said:
You can use them as cool looking wings for your other space ships! I do it all the time (or used to, at least).
Jen said:
I'm glad the original spacemen, knights, and police were represented, but you missed my favorite legoman: the construction worker.
Zach Oat said:
No Sam Sinister? The hook-handed, monocled, top-hat-wearing cad? Massive fail. He and my skeleton hang out all the time.
khaine said:
The castle sets were by far the bestest sets of all time.
After three and a half decades The Wife still gets me a little lego set for Christmas every year. The Spawnling will be old enough to play with them soon. That'll be fun.
Kevin said:
I always feel like a failure when I don't please Zach Oat, due to his status in the Toyfare pantheon.
Loafy said:
My neighbor across the street as a kid had a ton of lego. Mostly the Forest and medieval playsets from the 80's and well represented on the list (14 & 3). And yes, we played nothing but Robin (of Sherwood, BBC represent) Hood mixed in with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and it was EPIC!
Bubette Duponte said:
Reads like an advertorial, but still an okay list.
Captain Flunky said:
Man, I just feel so fucking jipped, being born in the very early 70's means that my lego figures looked like the dudes in this piece of shit:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3105/2669831065_5f40b939e6.jpg?v=0
bort said:
Man, I cannot tell how many times armies of forrestmen stormed lego castle to rescue the princess in my childhood bed room.
Hembree said:
Man...wish you hadn't done this list....(openly weeping) I WANT MY CHILDHOOD BACK!!!
David L said:
Great list! I am going to go and pull out my original castle, the one made of ones and twos and put it together!! My space ships never did get taken apart!
And I agree that Indy is one of the best of the new characters, but there was a proto-Indiana Jones in the late 80s/early 90s that was just as cool!
Chief Supreme said:
Knowing your style, I'm very surprised the Slave Leia minifig didn't make the list.
Captain Flunky said:
I can only hope that a playmobil list is in the near future.
smashpro1 said:
I never had that particular diver, but I love the detail on that wetsuit. It even has the "diver down" flag on it!
supermarioman said:
Zach's right, Sam Sinister was awesome. Johnny Thunder was a great series, Johnny should have replaced Indy.
I have a bunch of those diver guys, and yes, they are awesome.
They even came with little Lego spear guns.
khaine said:
Ahhhhhhh playmobil... those were fun too. They made good giants for the lego guys to fight...
awww come on - you can't tell me you didn't do it too!
JOBSQUAD said:
Haha, sweet list!
I have a LEGO Indiana Jones Minifig keychain
on my car keys in my pocket right now!
I had to replace my Joker after his face wore off.....
El Diablo said:
Nicely done... I didn't know they were called "minifigs".
Blacktron figs were TITS! In my opinion they were the ONLY Lego figs! The O.G. Classic Space Astroauts were Sweet... I remember the first ones were white and the damn chin part of the helmet always broke... I would cut the chin part off and have killer Buck Rogers figures!
I still regret that I was never able to build a suitable Buck Rogers mobile!... :(
Boba Fett was the only "modern" Minifig I HAD to have... I would have put him on the list.
Werd
Church said:
Now all I need is a brickfilm of them all doing "YMCA."
Pete said:
Blacktron was awesome, but the other one I loved? M-Tron. Used to stage gigantic Lego battles between the two forces.
Hachiko said:
Great list, must have been a bitch to compile.
You could easily populate it with 30 Star Wars or Knights minifigs alone.
Strange to see no ninja/samurai minifigs though.......
bigdonkey1 said:
i love the UFO sets. they're one of the earliest birthday presents i can remember getting
i don't like indy being at #2 becuase he's broken the heavy tradition of yellow skin. and i don't like that. infact that's part of why i've shy'd away from lego in recent years is that the figures and models are overly complicated or acruate to the source material that almost all of them are based on. and the ones that aren't based on something all seem to be the same G.I.Joe Esq bollocks that i never liked
but i may have to check out some of the fantasy line. i do love me some tiny lego knights
Στέλιος said:
Yes! Blacktron! I still have a Battrax. Should have been higher than the Indiana Jones minifig though, not just because it is Blacktron but because their design and whole theme were incredible. Plus Indiana Jones was a film tie-in not a real in-house line...
No problem with Classic Space though!
TimToyGeek said:
There are probably a couple of new ones just coming out that will get a spot in the list - check out Snake, the alien truckdriver from the Space Truck Getaway set from Space Police III, or Frenzy, a wacky green four armed alien. Then there's Dollar Bill, a money-themed henchman in the Agents line with a diamond for an eye!
They're only getting better, as far as I'm concerned...
Tim
"toy geek"
DrPluton said:
I miss the Wolf Pack (from Medieval series) sets and the astronauts based on the real-life space program. I would even mix things up and have my modern astronauts end up traveling through time (usually with the wizard) to meet the Wolf Pack only to have Magnetrons (coolest space set IMO) show up. It was a ton of block-tastic fun.
monkey boy said:
the magnetrons in my collection served one purpose: to get their asses handed to them by blacktron, who then stole all their magnet pieces and built cooler looking, sleek black ships with them. my favorite piece of all time was that blacktron...roller...thing. i forget what it was called, but it had lots of wheels, and detachable spacecrafts.
Niko said:
I remember my classic space astronaut minifigs. Oh how I miss my Lego collection.
Kevin said:
Monkey Boy,
I believe you're thinking of Battrax.
Kip said:
This is just about the coolest thing ever.
bobarobes said:
Those are all cool, BUT you totally forgot the Black Knight.
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/?q=6009_1&v=z
His awesome helmet alone was worth buying this figure. And although it looks like he has gray armor it's actually solid black all the way through.
Mikey said:
What? No Han Solo?
chad said:
cool list brings back some memories even though the lego minifigs risked being lost with other bricks sometimes. and sadly due to pc times some of those figs will never be remade and rereleased and also surprised the darth vader one was not higher on the list and no slave Leia minifig either
Phil-Z said:
Is it just me, or could that Medieval Town Woman figure be easily modified into a Sarah Palin lego?
Johnny Longtorso said:
My favorite remains the guy with the sunglasses and black helmet-hair -- a perfect Roy Orbison (or, for someone more contemporary, Rod Blagojevich).
mia said:
i was lucky enough to get a forestmen in my childhood. he was easily my favorite figure. HOURS were spent fleshing out his backstory. i even let him play with my Arctic sets, even though it didnt really make sense.
Phil said:
I still play with my legos after 20+ years and this was a good list for us Lego nerds. If you wanna get really particular pretty much all the Star Wars characters (read Boba Fett and Han Solo in Carbonite) should have been the list.
bradbury said:
There's a new wierd alien fig which definitely has a place here (just bought it yesterday):
http://www.fial.de/media/images/lego_8400_box_in_big.jpg
Chris Ward said:
Where's the glow in the dark ghostie? He even starred in that Zak the Lego Maniac commercial.
Bill said:
dude! lego joker kicks lego twoface's ass
Andre said:
I agree with most of this list, but where is Yoda and Sam Sinister?
Otherwise, great read thanks :)
LittleBigSteve said:
How could you do TWO astronauts and not include the Lunar Rover astronaut? With his realistic markings, boom-mic-equipped head, and (best of all) oversized, gold-plated, lift-up visor, he's the best astronaut ever.
Castle said:
Man Blacktron was my favorite.
I used to build the car from The Wraith and he was the driver. It looked awesome.
Awesome T-rex said:
My brother and I had tons of minfigs, we always, ALWAYS kept the chef fig together.
JB said:
Good list though none of the ninja/samurai minifigures are on here, also the Rockraiders and Alpha Team themes had a great assortment of minifigs.
Bane said:
Great list! I remember creating my own space aliens before the actual minifigs came out. I would take a classic space minifig, get rid of the oxygen tanks on the back, swap out the head with a transparent green, yellow, blue or red cylinder light and then put the helmet back on.
Anonymous said:
I think the spaceman on the first place is simple, boring and ugly like shit. Hey! You forgot the ghost. Put him on the first place instead of that fucking spaceman!
Klayton said:
What about the ghost from the early 90's Castle sets? The one that glowed in the dark, and hid in the dungeons of the King's Mountain Fortress! That one should be on the list. Anyone want to sell me one, I lost mine as a kid, and they are nowhere to be found at lego.com.
